The lieutenant's facade nearly crumbled, revealing revulsion mixed

with shame, but he quickly regained his composure and smiled again, bleakly. 'Ah, yes, the Night of the Long Knives. That's what they call it now.'

'Is it true that the SS murdered over a hundred, maybe two hundred, SA officers and others in that one b.l.o.o.d.y purge?' 'No, it's not true,' the lieutenant replied with self-defensive anger. 'Those men weren't murdered. They were executed because they were traitors.'

'Executed without trial,' Wilson corrected him.

'You're impertinent, Herr Wilson. Count your blessings that you're American. Count them also because that purge, about which you are so sarcastic, has ensured that the SS, and not the SA, are now virtually ruling the Third Reich. The SS will therefore be in control of any research establishment in which you're likely to find yourself.'

'My request, then, is being seriously considered.'

'That's why I'm here.'

Realizing that after weeks of interrogation in this prison cell, he was close to getting what he wanted, Wilson allowed himself the luxury of a feeling of triumph. When Lieutenant Ernst Stoll of SS Technical Intelligence lowered his head to study the papers spread out on his knees, Wilson recognized his original drawings and notes, cunningly unfinished, for the kind of aircraft that the n.a.z.i's Projekt Saucer was trying, unsuccessfully, to create. It was also what he was trying to create, and with their help he would do it.

Lieutenant Stoll looked up from his notes to say: 'While I'm very impressed, I find it hard to believe that during the period you worked in secret between 1895 and 1930 you could have made the extraordinary technical advances indicated in these notes and drawings.'

'Having already tested my intellect and knowledge, you know that both are remarkable, so why doubt my achievements?'

'We can't check your actual engineering or scientific achievements until we get you into a research centre; however, according to what we can gauge from these remarkable notes and drawings, your achievements were completely divorced from the general scientific achievements of the time. Those were very early days, so your achievements seem too advanced to have sprung from that period.'

'It's a widely held misconception that those were early days,' Wilson replied, 'but they were in fact the most productive days in the history of science. As you've studied aeronautical engineering and rocketry, I needn't tell you about the extraordinary advances made in those fields during that period. However, I should remind you that by 1895 Rontgen had discovered X rays, Marconi had invented wireless telegraphy, Auguste and Louis Lumiere had invented the Cinematographe, the first main railway was electrified, and Ramsay had detected, by spectroscope, helium from a terrestrial source. By 1896 we had Rutherford's magnetic detection of electrical waves, the construction of an electrical submarine in France, and the first successful flights of S. P. Langley's flying machines. By 1897 numerous patents for flying machines had been registered, and J. J. Thomson's work on cathode rays had led to the evaluation of the electron. The rest I'm sure I don't have to tell you: From the successful test flights of Langley's flying machines in 1897 to the first crosschannel flight took only one decade and in that decade Robert H. G.o.ddard had already begun his experiments in rocketry. So, Lieutenant, I was not too advanced for my own time and indeed my work did spring from it and was nurtured by its achievements.'

Stoll smiled frostily, glanced down at Wilson's notes, then looked up again. 'Your work has been studied by our Projekt Saucer scientists and engineers at the German Rocket Research Inst.i.tute at k.u.mmersdorf, just outside Berlin. While it's agreed that your designs are remarkable, they remain incomplete and would not lead to a workable saucer-shaped aircraft. You claim that with our help you'd be able to complete this project, but why, since our own scientists have failed repeatedly to do so, should we place our faith in your undoubted talents?'

'You know I can't answer that,' Wilson said carefully, 'but can only show you what I can do when I'm actually working.'

'I understand that, Herr Wilson, but perhaps you can at least give me some indication of the direction you'd be heading in. For instance, what would separate your work from that which is already being done by our scientists at k.u.mmersdorf? We agree that an aircraft shaped like a saucer would fly better than any other, but that shape also has its own problems, which so far we haven't solved. How, then, would you approach this problem that has so far foiled us?'

Wilson had no intentions of telling them everything he had discovered, but he knew that he had to give them enough to whet their appet.i.tes and encourage them to let him work for them. He therefore leaned forward on the bed and chose his words carefully.

'Your scientists have been researching along conventional lines,' he said, 'but a saucer-shaped aircraft wouldn't respond to conventional laws of aerodynamics, so we have to look elsewhere.'

'I'm not sure I understand,' Stoll replied, though his gaze was steady and thoughtful.

'When I was working with the wind tunnel at Zeppelin in Friedrichshafen,' Wilson said, 'I helped test many of the experimental prototypes coming from k.u.mmersdorf and it soon became clear to me that the k.u.mmersdorf scientists were trying to construct some kind of saucer-shaped aircraft.'

'You've already told us you knew that,' Stoll said impatiently.

'I remind you of it,' Wilson replied, unperturbed, 'because I also ascertained that most of the k.u.mmersdorf designs were based on the tailless or all-wing aircraft, the Horten 1, which was designed and constructed by the Horten brothers, Walter and Riemer, for the German Air Ministry, at their factory in Bonn, from 1931 to 1932. That socalled all-wing aircraft, which in prototype was a glider, had a span of forty point seven feet, a wing area of two hundred and twenty-six square feet, and a wing-loading of two pounds per square foot. It had a flying weight of four hundred and forty pounds, a gliding angle of twenty-one degrees, and a flying life of approximately seven hours.'

'Your intelligence gathering is commendable,' Stoll said sarcastically, 'but what is the point of this?'

'The Horten brothers were convinced that the most important form of aircraft would be the all-wing type, which is why there were no vertical stabilizing or control surfaces on their flying wing, the Horton I, why it was virtually flat and crescent-shaped, like a boomerang, and why the pilot was placed in a p.r.o.ne position to reduce c.o.c.kpit size.'

'Yes, Herr Wilson, I know this, but '

'That so-called flying wing certainly flew for seven hours, but it could never have been the basis of a flying saucer for one very good reason.'

'Yes?'

'It was still faced with the problem that's repeatedly foiled your scientists: the limitations imposed by the boundary layer.' He could see that he had Stoll's interest, though the German was trying to disguise it by showing little emotion. Amused, Wilson said, 'Have you heard of the boundary layer, Oberleutnant?'

Stoll just smiled at the sarcasm. 'Why don' t you remind me, Herr Wilson? You talk so well about these things.'

'While being four or five thousand times less viscous than oil, air is still viscous,' Wilson said, enjoying himself. 'Because of this, the air sweeping in on the solid body of an aircraft forms imperceptible stratifications of resistance and consequently decreases the speed of the body in flight. These layers of air are therefore known as the boundary layer and the boundary layer increases its resistance in direct proportion to the increasing speed of the flying object, thus imposing severe limitations on its speed and manoeuvrability.'

'And in layman's terms?' Stoll asked, clearly amused by Wilson's enthusiasm for lecturing.

'In layman's terms,' Wilson continued, drawing Stoll into his web, 'the major problem regarding supersonic flight is to somehow move this negative air as far to the rear of the aircraft as possible, thus minimizing the expenditure of energy required to propel it through the sky. Moreover, it's possible that a revolutionary type of aircraft could, by not only completely removing the boundary layer but by somehow rerouting it and utilizing it as an added propulsive force, fly through the skies using little other than the expelled air itself. Should this be accomplished, we would have an aircraft capable of remarkable speeds while using only the bare minimum of conventional fuel.'

'So you plan to devote all your energies to solving the problem of the boundary layer.'

'Yes,' Wilson said, playing his trump card, 'and Germany is the place for doing that.'

'I'm flattered but why Germany?'

'As I explained to your Reichsfhrer, the boundary layer was introduced to the world of aerodynamics by the German professor, Ludwig Prandtl, at Gottingen in 1904. Throughout the following years, many other German scientists, including professors Betz, Flettner, and Junkers, experimented with specially equipped aircraft in attempts to reduce the boundary layer. Most of the experiments were based on the suction method, in which the negative air is sucked into the wing itself, through tiny holes or slots, then expelled by means of a pump located in the fuselage. While this was a step in the right direction, the resulting aircraft still required heavy, obstructive engines also the main problem with the flying wing jet fighter that the Horten brothers envisaged but it's my belief that in order to get rid of the boundary layer completely and in order to make use of the dead air not only for acceleration, but for manoeuvring as well what we need is an aircraft devoid of all obstructing protuberances, such as wings, rudders, and even normal air intakes, and one not requiring a large, heavy engine. In other words, this revolutionary new aircraft should be the perfect flying wing that offers the least possible resistance, sucks in the dead air of the boundary layer, and then uses that same air, expelling it at great force, to increase its own momentum.'